Federal political reporter

Bill Shorten has rejected suggestions that he will offer sweeteners to attract states to sign up to Gonski. Photo: Harrison Saragossi

New Education Minister Bill Shorten has played down hopes the federal government will offer significant extra money to win over the states and salvage its $15 billion national school funding reforms.

The man who has nine days to secure the so-called Gonski overhaul dampened expectations of a breakthrough when he meets Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon on Friday, warning hold-out states the existing offers were ''good'' and the federal government would deliver its share ''as promised''.

I get the impression they're not looking for truckloads of cash.

Victoria has publicly demanded $7 billion of federal funding over six years, compared with the $2.7 billion currently on the table.

In his first interview since being sworn in as Education Minister on Monday, Mr Shorten said he wanted to ''hear direct from people what they're on about'' rather than be guided by public calls for extra money. Mr Shorten signalled he would not take a radically different approach from that of predecessor Peter Garrett and former prime minister Julia Gillard.

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''A lot of work's already been done. The Commonwealth will deliver its share as promised. To be fair to the people we're dealing with, I get the impression they're not looking for truckloads of cash,'' he said.

But in an effort to reach out to conservative states Mr Shorten said he recognised the states had been ''in the [education] business for a long time'' and the federal government did not necessarily know best how to improve results. He said he wanted to ensure federal money led to better outcomes and was not wasted.

Ms Gillard had launched a ''crusade'' to put in place a new school funding system based on the recommendations of businessman David Gonski, but had only managed to sign up NSW, South Australia and the ACT by the time she was ousted.

Kevin Rudd, to whom Mr Shorten switched his support at the last minute, extended the June 30 deadline for further deals by two weeks and reaffirmed his support for the renamed Better Schools reforms.

The new system would set a level of funding for each student to be topped up by ''loadings'' targeting categories of disadvantage such as disability and non-English-speaking background.

The federal government has asked the states to contribute about a third of the $15 billion six-year cost. Mr Shorten stressed the importance of the reforms, saying it was a ''long overdue'' project that would tackle Australia's falling performance compared with other OECD countries.

Mr Shorten said he felt pressure to deliver for schoolchildren and their parents but refused to reflect on the consequences of failure to sign up all states.

He was hopeful of reaching a compromise with the Catholic sector, which is fighting to retain the power to distribute money to individual schools as it sees fit.

''They want to maintain what they see as their system and we want to make sure that there's transparency and accountability. These are not giant mountains to overcome because we have shared interests,'' he said.

Regulations being drafted will show how much flexibility the Catholic system has to move money around between schools.

Education sources said the Labor state of Tasmania had been poised to sign up to a deal before Ms Gillard was ousted. Mr Shorten met Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings on Wednesday to discuss outstanding issues and will speak with the independent school sector on Friday.

There is an obstacle to striking a deal with Queensland: Premier Campbell Newman is overseas on leave.

Federal opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne called on the government to ''abandon this shambolic process'' and delay the reforms by a year.

A key issue to be resolved relates to planned annual increases in funding, or indexation. It is understood the federal government had already offered indexation on top of the $2.7 billion commonwealth share, whereas the $7 billion demanded by Victoria includes indexation.

103 comments

Mr Abbott has not said much about any education policies he has, other than he will stop many grants and bonuses to schools. He will not fund any computer programs, will not instal NBN services into schools or higher education and if his policies mirror those of the Vic Liberals he will slash funding for TAFE and university around the nation.

Commenter

Ange T Kenos

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 7:54AM

Why do we need improved education? Clearly present education standards are adequate for digging up minerals and running checkouts. Australia needs nothing more. Good accountants can be had from overseas as they understand the best ways for the wealthy to avoid tax using tax havens. Besides, better education could make the natives restless.

Commenter

Good Logic

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 8:49AM

Good Logic – All true, and the other reason that there is no need for wasting money on education is that all of the rich children are already getting a great education in the highly funded private system! If it’s not broke don’t fix it!

Commenter

QED

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 9:15AM

Do you think Money can buy Education? Students can't do add up properly, why do we so concern about internet? Games in the school?

Commenter

MMJJ

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 9:45AM

MMJJ

"Gonski" is just not about the funds it is about the distrubution of those funds to more targetted areas or areas with higher needs.

Money alone cant but education I agree though it can make a diference if utilised with other elements such as Teacher quality, better resources etc

BTW The Gonski review was the first of its type in 40 yrs...or would the LNPs education "thingy" be more to your liking?

The LNP state the current system aint broke when clearly it is as identified by a review that was the first in 40yrs.

Commenter

Buffalo Bill

Location

Sydneys Northshore

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 10:01AM

@ MMJJ good call i know that down where i am at the high school they have a class for the kids with slow learning , adhd, and other difficulties the class has gone from about 5 students to a class of 30 odd in 6 yrs , most of them cant read of write and they r in yr 7 and 8 very scary

Commenter

Get Real

Location

Real world

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 10:15AM

Depends what your philosophy is about educating. The conservative philosophy is to make sure that the rich kids are well educated and can take their role as leaders of the next generation. They are born of privilege and therefore a superior ‘product’ to begin with. The masses should be kept uneducated so they are happy in low pay roles.

Science and genetics refute this rubbish of course. There are potential Einstein’s born in all segments of society but most will not get a chance cos they are given second class opportunities. I’d argue that we all get richer if we educate all to the best standard and we get the most out of all our children. This way instead of the couple of random geniuses out of the elite 5%, we will get many out of 100% of the population.

PS it not about raising geniuses, a bigger advantage is gained if everyone in society is the best they can be. A super smart workforce that can work in the cutting edge new industries that we need to develop.

Commenter

QED

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 10:53AM

Get Real - Can they use punctuation?

Commenter

Colon the Barbarian

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 11:12AM

It is dangerous to rely on one person for such policy called Gone-sky as the sky might fall in on it. We employ a minister to the portfolio to know schooling and devise fixes, not consultants.Interesting enough the ALP and LIBS say our biggest problem is china ending our resources mining boom. THE BIGGEST ISSUE they said. However one federal party leader has the highest level experience in that area, Clive Palmer from Palmer United Party whom will know how to handle this issue the best, in fact has filled all electorate seats enough to form a full federal ministry and Govt in his own right. If that issue is our biggest worry then his experience along with other good policies, incl a real asylum fix, and the only party with no internal disunity and top level exec, a well oiled machine setup whilst others bickered, that party is the best setup to actually govern. The key is, it has the best exec structure of all parties. As for gonski, I wonder if "as usual" each dollar the feds fund the state, will the state take same amount out of its usual funding, thus no gain at all, just rip off federal funds.

Commenter

brian

Location

glenroy

Date and time

July 05, 2013, 11:32AM

Ange T Kenos and you know all this because Tony Abbott confers with you on all policy decisions?